Research In Motion will finally formally unveil its BlackBerry 10 operating system and the first BlackBerrys running on the platform on Wednesday.

The launch event, which comes after years of delays and half-starts, kicks off at 7 a.m. PT. CNET's Brian Bennett and I will be bringing you the news live from New York, while Sarah Tew will be capturing photos at the event.

There's a lot riding on the success of BlackBerry 10, which represents a wholly different platform than the older BlackBerry operating system. The company is betting that the more advanced software and improved hardware will convinced its base of users to stick with BlackBerry, as well as lure in users tired of other platforms.

The company hasn't been standing still these past months. Beyond working out the kinks of BlackBerry 10, it has rallied the support of developers, drummed up some enthusiasm from carriers, and teased the new hardware.

Thanks to the developer test units RIM released early on, there have been several good looks at the operating system. But this will be the first time we get a full look at the hardware.

RIM is essentially starting over with a new platform, and is competing against another hungry operating system in Microsoft's Windows Phone. Android and iOS, meanwhile, tower over both platforms.

As usual, we'll be using ScribbleLive to bring you live text and photos and to give you the blow-by-blow details as they come. We'll start the live blog about 15 minutes before the event officially kicks off.

Editors' note: The original version of this story was published January 29 at 7:00 a.m. PT.

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About the author

Roger Cheng is the executive editor in charge of breaking news for CNET News. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade. He's a devoted Trojan alum and Los Angeles Lakers fan.
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